updates
What Flight 1 changed on the vehicle and the pad
On September 8, 2023, SpaceX said the April 20 first flight was lost after aft fires cut engine control, and listed hot-staging, electric steering, and a flame deflector as the fixes.
Topics: space-civilization starship
This page is an original Muskularity summary. It does not republish SpaceX’s full post. Figures are the company’s statements on the cited date unless another primary link is named.
Summary
The first integrated Starship and Super Heavy lifted off at 8:33 a.m. CT (13:33:09 UTC) on April 20, 2023, from Starbase. It reached about 39 kilometers (24 miles) over the Gulf. SpaceX said propellant leaks started fires in the booster’s aft end, the fires cut the link to the primary flight computer, and the vehicle lost most of its engines and then control. Leak mitigations, harder engine and booster testing, and a much larger fire-suppression system were the corrective actions. The autonomous flight-safety system did command destruct after the vehicle left its path, tumbled, and lost altitude. Breakup came 237.474 seconds after engine ignition, later than expected, so the system was requalified.
Separate from the failure, SpaceX said it had built a hot-stage separation system, so the ship’s engines would push the stages apart, and a fully electric thrust-vector system for the booster’s Raptors in place of hydraulics. The pad foundation, which failed on Flight 1, was reinforced, and a flame deflector had been tested. FAA oversight of the investigation included NASA and NTSB participation, with SpaceX leading.
Key facts
| Fact | Label |
|---|---|
| Liftoff April 20, 2023, 8:33 a.m. CT; apogee about 39 km | Company flight report |
| Breakup 237.474 seconds after ignition, after a late flight-termination action | Company flight report |
| Cause chain: aft leaks, fire, loss of the flight computer link | Company investigation finding |
| Hot-staging, electric engine steering, and a flame deflector added before the next flight | Company upgrade list |
Why it matters
Every later Starship flight report in this archive assumes the pad and separation changes named here. The 39-kilometer apogee is the baseline the next two flights move past.
On this site
Sources
- SpaceX update, September 8, 2023 — Grade A, company flight report
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